well, you know, there really wasn t a legal need for this to go on for that long. certainly under ohio law and most states, the victims are allowed to speak and the defendant is allowed to speak at a sentencing. but the proof that the government put on wasn t entirely necessary. i think the government was in part just trying to show the world what really went on here. also establishing a factual basis so that if castro down the line claims he wants to withdraw his plea, that would make it that much more difficult. but if i can just raise one point that i know has come up a lot on twitter. why why isn t he being executed? why are we paying to support him in prison? this deal this is cheaper, isn t it? much cheaper. litigation would cost millions and millions of dollars. it would go on for a decade, 15 years, at least. now litigation is over. he will disappear into the prison system. the government saved millions of dollars by by concluding this
that house for those ten years. and also there s this issue, if ariel castro is willing to show remorse, then, again, it goes to the cathartic element that the victims and their families will receive some closure. i m trying to put myself in the shoes of the defense attorney. really is there anything they can say or do even though they ve given some indication and ariel castro has talked about being abused as a child, about how he s a series of sexual problems throughout his entire life. is there anything that can happen today that s going to change the outcome here? there is nothing this defendant can say. whatever he says about remorse, whatever kind of explanation he offers about his own addiction or his own abuse nothing he can say is going to take a single hour off the life sentence plus 1,000 years. but i agree with the comments made. there are other important goals
hearing for ariel castro. michele knight is one of these three women who we are told is considering taking the stand and facing her captor. i want to bring back in our two guests. you were talking earlier about having so much experience with dealing with people who have faced the horrors of this level of sexual abuse and identify said many times on this program that one thing that s stayed with me of the many stories that i ve covered is seeing elizabeth smart face her captor for the first time, how brave she was and how extraordinarily moving it was. talk a little bit about how you would prepare someone to decide to make that decision whether or not this is the right thing for them? well, chris, i actually am a former prosecutor and currently a criminal defense attorney so when i see the horror it s usually on the defense table now. however, as a former prosecutor
ariel castro s yard and while there in the yard a man from next door also came over and was on the porch and began telling amanda to kick out the bottom panel of the door. after several kicks she was able to get the door panel out and then she crawled out with her daughter. did you have an opportunity to interview gina dejesus on may 6th, 2013? yes. what did you learn from that interview? during the initial interview with gina dejesus who was 14 years old at the time she was taken stated on april 2nd, 2004 she was walking home from school with her friend rosy. who is that ariel castro s daughter. what happened while they were walking home? they wanted to see if rosy could go over to gina dejesus s house. they stopped at a pay phone to make a phone call.
had to exit the home from a different door she came in so they went out a different door and she wound up in the basement. at this time ariel castro physically restrained her with a chain that was touched the center support pole of the basement. put plastic ties on her wrist. at this time gina dejesus was first sexually assaulted. and that is the deck from the sex crimes unit talking about what he learned during the moments and the hours just following the escape of those three women who were held, most of them for a decade by ariel castro. i want to bring back in our legal contributor and our legal analyst. from a legal standpoint, from an emotional standpoint, obviously, kendall, there s no words to really describe how this makes you feel. but from a legal standpoint and the judge who has to bring down